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I'm with Chris regarding Alphabear. I really wanted to like it, because the core loop is really smart and fun, but it's got an actual genuine paywall in there that turned me off the game really hard. Twice! The first time it happened I complained about it on Twitter, and ended up exchanging a couple of emails with the designer. I mentioned that I would have bought the Infinite Honey in order to remove the main stamina bar, but it quickly became apparent that there were multiple other stamina bars that you can't do anything about, in the form of the bear cooldowns. He responded by saying that the cooldowns were put in as a way of encouraging players to use experiment with different bears (And I've seen him saying the same to people on Twitter), but the way they're balanced (Most cooldowns are 4 hours or longer) means they have the complete opposite effect.

I decided to give the game another shot after his emails, and bought Infinite Honey, because it did generally seem like they were listening to people's feedback and improving the game. I hit a wall again however, in almost exactly the same place. The boss of Chapter 3 is balanced in such a way that you need your best bears to score highly enough, but the time limit is so tight that getting bad letters can make it impossible even then. I threw myself against it until all my most useful bears were on 8-24 hour cooldowns; it felt to me exactly like Candy Crush's paywall level, so I immediately uninstalled it. Their intent might have been different, but if it feels crass and exploitative, then I'm not going to play it. It was so frustrating to me, because the mechanical design was solid.

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I'm with Chris regarding Alphabear. I really wanted to like it, because the core loop is really smart and fun, but it's got an actual genuine paywall in there that turned me off the game really hard. Twice! The first time it happened I complained about it on Twitter, and ended up exchanging a couple of emails with the designer. I mentioned that I would have bought the Infinite Honey in order to remove the main stamina bar, but it quickly became apparent that there were multiple other stamina bars that you can't do anything about, in the form of the bear cooldowns. He responded by saying that the cooldowns were put in as a way of encouraging players to use experiment with different bears (And I've seen him saying the same to people on Twitter), but the way they're balanced (Most cooldowns are 4 hours or longer) means they have the complete opposite effect.

I decided to give the game another shot after his emails, and bought Infinite Honey, because it did generally seem like they were listening to people's feedback and improving the game. I hit a wall again however, in almost exactly the same place. The boss of Chapter 3 is balanced in such a way that you need your best bears to score highly enough, but the time limit is so tight that getting bad letters can make it impossible even then. I threw myself against it until all my most useful bears were on 8-24 hour cooldowns; it felt to me exactly like Candy Crush's paywall level, so I immediately uninstalled it. Their intent might have been different, but if it feels crass and exploitative, then I'm not going to play it. It was so frustrating to me, because the mechanical design was solid.

For me the problem is even more fundamental: I absolutely 100% don't give a shit about using "different bears." I want to succeed because I did a good job at the game itself, not because I did a good job and also had "good bears." They're just arbitrary score bonuses you get for doing nothing. You could play a much worse game and get a better score because you have a better bear. It's a big turnoff for me. It doesn't add anything to the actual experience of playing. I always just pick whatever random bears aren't on a cooldown because it's so incredibly boring to me to have to look at all my available bears and determine which ones I should use.

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For me the problem is even more fundamental: I absolutely 100% don't give a shit about using "different bears." I want to succeed because I did a good job at the game itself, not because I did a good job and also had "good bears." They're just arbitrary score bonuses you get for doing nothing. You could play a much worse game and get a better score because you have a better bear. It's a big turnoff for me. It doesn't add anything to the actual experience of playing. I always just pick whatever random bears aren't on a cooldown because it's so incredibly boring to me to have to look at all my available bears and determine which ones I should use.

I agree with all this. I wish there was a mode without any bear modifiers that was just a game I could try to get a high score at. That's another casualty of the metagame - you can't compare scores with friends or try to beat your previous best. Scores feel completely meaningless.

(In the defense of the bears, they are pretty goddamned adorable. They should just be fun cosmetic items you gather through play, like Crossy Road characters.)

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I think Chris' criticism of Alphabears is completely correct. I definitely don't have any counter argument to it. I think the game is worse off for a lot of design decisions that stem from its business model. But actually playing the game none of that stuff seems to bother me. Even if on an intellectual level I think the way the scoring system is bad, in the moment of playing it I'm enjoying myself too much to care. I think this is a case where you can really see the value of good audio/visual feedback from a game kind of trumping more high minded design ideals, at least for me.